The forest service has run roughshod the last few years closing everything in sight.
Part of the Huron/Manistee national forest was proclaimed “wilderness” by Clinton on the way out the door... it didn't meet the legal requirements to be so designated. So there was push back on that which caused that to be overturned. So what did the forest service do? They decided to designate some of those areas as “non-motorized usage” areas. There was a public hearing on it - 95% of the people wanted it left open - but they closed it anyways.
Why is there so much state/federal land in Michigan? 3 million acres state forest and 3 million acres federal forest? Because after it was originally logged much of that land reverted to the government for taxes because it wasn't good enough for farming.
The land was laced with logging roads and logging railbeds (the Shaw locomotive was invented here... can handle tight turns, wooded rails, steep grades and heavy loads. Made year round logging possible).
The forest service has been busily closing those access ways for 30 years... originally based on individual foresters green agenda, later based upon ‘road density guidelines’ developed on national forests out west.
This spring two ‘law enforcement’ agents of the forest service came though and ordered more closures... on a busy tourist weekend (mushrooming)... and actually bulldozed roads closed with people up in the woods being blocked in.
I my opinion the forest service (I've deliberately NOT capitalized their name) are one of those governmental agencies that needs to be reined in... as they seem to be out of control.
Governmental land by definition is “PUBLIC” land - so allow the public to use it as long as they don't damage it long term. A single hard rain causes more erosion damage than all the ORV ever could. And don't even get me started on the damage done by loggers - but that's OK because they only do it every 15-20 years! Logging needs to be done, fact is it needs to be logged more often, but it should also be cleaned up afterward. And all those closed access roads? They open them up again for the loggers to use, then close them right back down.....
I love our national and state parks, wilderness areas and refuges but we have enough. The state game area near me made the place off limits for horseback riding a few years ago.
Fascist Service is more like it.
Too big for their britches.